1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to keyboard musical instruments and, more particularly, to a magnetic action for coupling a key with a hammer for striking a resonator element of such keyboard musical instruments.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The actions or operating mechanisms required to couple a key of a keyboard musical instrument with a hammer to cause the hammer to strike a resonator element, such as a string in a piano, are normally relatively complex mechanical structures thereby producing increased opportunities for failure and/or malfunction. Many efforts have been made to simplify the coupling between keys and hammers in keyboard musical instruments, such efforts including the use of magnetic actions, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 848,658 to Kampelman, 856,794 to Morgan and 3,139,476 to Alvarez. As yet, there is still room for improvement in such coupling actions in that such actions generally have the disadvantages, even when utilizing magnetic actions, of being relatively complex in nature, expensive to produce, difficult to adjust and having many parts subject to failure or malfunction.